International jock police should forget about controlling technology's impact on sports. It's the 21st century - let the augmentations begin.

By Andrew Tilin

Italian physicist Ciro Fusco thinks he knows exactly
what could stop a muscled-up sprinter from winning gold at this month's
Summer Games in Sydney, Australia - the spikes on his or her shoes, which
have a tiny-but-measurable "glue effect" when they stab a track's surface.
Fusco has spent the last four years studying such minutiae while developing
adidas gear for the 2000 Olympics. He and a team of engineers used computer
modeling to rethink the existing shape of track spikes; what emerged was
a shallow Z-shaped cleat, made from a ceramic-aluminum alloy, that doesn't
poke into the runway. Instead the shoe grabs the running surface and then
easily lets go.

It all sounds a little obsessive, but at a time when jocks are maxing out
the body's capabilities, micro-innovations can add up. "Athletes have reached
certain physical limitations," says Fusco.
"And now technology is optimizing their performance."

Of course, the five-ring brass gets nervous when it hears talk of enhancements
beyond extra effort, pep talks, and Gatorade; they're forever scrambling
to control technology's growing influence on sports. Witness the absence
(due to tubing size restrictions) from Sydney's velodromes of the aerodynamic,
carbon-fiber bikes that were rolled out four years ago in Atlanta, and
the mandate given to Speedo,
in the name of fair play, to dole out its sleek new swimsuits to any competitor
who wants one. As for drugs, notorious test-tube elixirs like human growth
hormone and erythropoietin are coming under more scrutiny than ever. Nevertheless,
International Olympic Committee officials have all but conceded that their
ability to test for banned substances isn't reliable enough to catch everybody.

Which raises a point: It may be time to reexamine this whole athletic purity
thing and say to hell with it. Within at least five years, elite athletes
will be able to obtain genetic upgrades, injecting mutated nucleotide chains
that stimulate the production of oxygen-toting red blood cells or increased
musculature. Olympic officials might not be able to stop that either, so
wouldn't it be better to make sure everybody, including those teensy badminton
players from South Korea, gets
a safe, reliable gene boost? (And while we're at it, could we put Flubber
tips on the shuttlecocks
to liven up the action?)

In celebration of this escalating pursuit of faster-higher-stronger, we've
compiled a cutting-edge athlete's duffel of techno-enhanced clothing,
equipment, and drugs that will help the world's athletes mine gold starting
September 15 and running through the October Paralympics. After that comes
some innovations for the future. Although these optimizers may take a while
to debut, an Olympic year is the perfect time to recognize the spirit they
represent: Screw purity - what we want is possibility.